Muslim Jihadist From Virginia Arrested In Bomb Plot

Arrest Made in Washington Bomb Plot
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: October 27, 2010

WASHINGTON — A Virginia man of Pakistani origin was arrested on Wednesday on accusations that he tried to help men he believed were militants to plot bombings at Washington area subway stations, the Justice Department announced.

The man, Farooque Ahmed, 34, of Ashburn, Va., a naturalized American citizen, has been charged with collecting information to assist in planning a terrorist attack on a transit facility, and with attempting to provide material support “to help carry out multiple bombings to cause mass casualties at Metrorail stations,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

Peter Carr, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, provided no details on whether the men Mr. Ahmed met with were undercover agents.

But a U.S. official who had been briefed on the case confirmed that Mr. Ahmed’s contacts had been Federal Bureau of Investigation agents who were part of a sting operation.

Mr. Ahmed, who was arrested early on Wednesday, first came to the attention of American authorities early in April, when he told “associates,” that he wanted to conduct jihad sometime, according to the official. This was passed on to law enforcement agencies, which began to monitor him.

The official, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not allowed to comment publicly on the matter, said authorities believe Mr. Ahmed was working alone, and that he was not part of a terrorist cell.

The Justice Department, in its statement, emphasized that “at no time was the public in danger during this investigation,” language that has been code for an investigation in which federal agents posing as militants infiltrate a group of young men.

According to the indictment, which was handed down yesterday by a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., Mr. Ahmed took part in scouting of a Metrorail station in Arlington, and recorded images of the stations on video four times. In July, he gave a memory stick “to an individual whom Ahmed believed to be affiliated with al-Qaeda,” in a hotel room in Sterling, Va. Authorities said he agreed to assess two other Metrorail stations in Arlington as potential attack locations as well.

Mr. Ahmed’s case was similar to other investigations involving undercover federal agents, which were conducted in, among other places, Dallas, Chicago, and Raleigh.

He did not appear to be part of a pattern of home-grown extremists, like Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-born American who received training in Pakistan, or Najibullah Zazi, an Afghan man whose plot to bomb the New York subway system went undetected for months.

Mr. Ahmed was not connected to a spate of recent shootings in the Washington area, Mr. Carr said. Nor was there any indication his case was related to the recent terrorist warnings in Europe.

Mr. Ahmed’s detention hearing is set for Friday. In his first court appearance on Wednesday, he said he could not afford a lawyer, and Mr. Carr said the court would appoint one.

If Mr. Ahmed is convicted, he faces a maximum of 50 years in prison.

I posted this brand new NY Times article not only because it's newsworthy, but mainly because I'm beginning to get the feeling that one of these days one of these Islamic nut cases will be successful.

Detroit last Christmas, Times Square, synagogues in the Bronx. It's only a matter of time before our luck runs out (again - 9/11). Then what do we do?

Arrest Made in Washington Bomb Plot
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: October 27, 2010

WASHINGTON — A Virginia man of Pakistani origin was arrested on Wednesday on accusations that he tried to help men he believed were militants to plot bombings at Washington area subway stations, the Justice Department announced.

The man, Farooque Ahmed, 34, of Ashburn, Va., a naturalized American citizen, has been charged with collecting information to assist in planning a terrorist attack on a transit facility, and with attempting to provide material support “to help carry out multiple bombings to cause mass casualties at Metrorail stations,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

Peter Carr, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, provided no details on whether the men Mr. Ahmed met with were undercover agents.

But a U.S. official who had been briefed on the case confirmed that Mr. Ahmed’s contacts had been Federal Bureau of Investigation agents who were part of a sting operation.

Mr. Ahmed, who was arrested early on Wednesday, first came to the attention of American authorities early in April, when he told “associates,” that he wanted to conduct jihad sometime, according to the official. This was passed on to law enforcement agencies, which began to monitor him.

The official, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not allowed to comment publicly on the matter, said authorities believe Mr. Ahmed was working alone, and that he was not part of a terrorist cell.

The Justice Department, in its statement, emphasized that “at no time was the public in danger during this investigation,” language that has been code for an investigation in which federal agents posing as militants infiltrate a group of young men.

According to the indictment, which was handed down yesterday by a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., Mr. Ahmed took part in scouting of a Metrorail station in Arlington, and recorded images of the stations on video four times. In July, he gave a memory stick “to an individual whom Ahmed believed to be affiliated with al-Qaeda,” in a hotel room in Sterling, Va. Authorities said he agreed to assess two other Metrorail stations in Arlington as potential attack locations as well.

Mr. Ahmed’s case was similar to other investigations involving undercover federal agents, which were conducted in, among other places, Dallas, Chicago, and Raleigh.

He did not appear to be part of a pattern of home-grown extremists, like Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-born American who received training in Pakistan, or Najibullah Zazi, an Afghan man whose plot to bomb the New York subway system went undetected for months.

Mr. Ahmed was not connected to a spate of recent shootings in the Washington area, Mr. Carr said. Nor was there any indication his case was related to the recent terrorist warnings in Europe.

Mr. Ahmed’s detention hearing is set for Friday. In his first court appearance on Wednesday, he said he could not afford a lawyer, and Mr. Carr said the court would appoint one.

If Mr. Ahmed is convicted, he faces a maximum of 50 years in prison.

I posted this brand new NY Times article not only because it's newsworthy, but mainly because I'm beginning to get the feeling that one of these days one of these Islamic nut cases will be successful.

Detroit last Christmas, Times Square, synagogues in the Bronx. It's only a matter of time before our luck runs out (again - 9/11). Then what do we do?

You do realize that you would be fired from almost all civil service, NPR, government related jobs for posting this racist information.

You do realize that you would be fired from almost all civil service, NPR, government related jobs for posting this racist information.

I'm not only a qualified racist, but since I have empathy for the surviving family members of 9/11 who want the emotion-quotient (EQ) challenged Muslims to move the lower Manhattan Mosque to a diffferent site, I'm also a qualified bigot.

The one-way street Muslims want everything THEIR way and one of these days their bombs will go off on an American street. I am sorry to say.